Howdy From Leadville Colorado!

Jacob, Jasmine, and Laura go Skiing between tournaments in Leadville, CO.





 Jacob and I have been on the road for a week now.

Here are some pictures on our way to go ski in Leadville, Colorado with Peggy Noman and her daughter, Jasmine (Jacob's debate partner.) and Laura Strack her good friend.

 

  Jacob and I are having a wonderful time on this special road trip for him with the two debate tournaments and a ski trip sandwiched in the middle.....butt I look forward to getting home again soon!

I couldn't ski because I just couldn't breathe.  I pretty much struggled with alititude sickness the whole time.

As long as I sat in the lodge and watched the skiers I was fine, but as soon as I started lugging bags around and hiking up and down the stairs and out to the car, I thought my heart would pound out of my chest.

Here is a picture of Jacob, Jasmine, and Laura skiing at Ski Cooper in Leadville. It was cold but they had a great time.


At night, it was hard to breathe well. Thank goodness, Peggy thought to tell me to start drinking gatorade and water more.  It really did help some. 

We we left for Denver and the second debate tournament on Wednesday. The first day of debate got cancelled due to snow closing the campus.

Peggy did a great job driving down the mountains which had a lot of snow and ice. It was a steep grade down hill for miles!  Instead of two hours it took about four plus stops. 



 We stayed with a family in Denver and drove Peggy's van while the girls and Peggy stayed at a nearby hotel. Our hostess' home was about 20 minutes away.  They were a very nice family and we enjoyed visiting with them.  I'm so grateful we managed to avoid hotels at both tournaments!

We went to several nice places to eat and saw lots and lots and lots of snow! We drove in it, climbed through it and Jacob skiied in it.

Even at the tournament, there was lots of snow and the Texan kids couldn't resist a snow ball fight or two. In fact I saw a few mini-snowmen... probably made by a few 'snow deprived' Houstonians.  That looked a little odd on the grounds of the University of Denver where the tournament took place. Ha!

Anyway, it's been a great trip...but it will be good to be home!

 PS.  I learned a great photography tip that I wanted to share with you, just in case your are headed out on a trip any time soon.  I discovered that if I zoom in as close as the camera will allow and then take all those pictures of the beautiful panoramic scenes whizzing past the car, I get much more 'picturesque' scenes.

I took all of these photos while my friend Peggy drove through the mountains from New Mexico to Colorado. They just turned out so much better zoomed in!

Then you don't have to crop them later and the resolution is much better.